Maj Dietrich Puttfarken, KG51, Lost 23.04.44.

[Mike H]

Das Flurschaden-Geschwader - New book by Jan Horn

The history of KG51 Edelweiss (Jan 44 to wars end) over Eastern England in long range night hunting missions with Me 410s, night fighter bomber missions over the Normandy beach head with Fw 190s and the Me 262-jet-fighter.

http://www.das-geschichtsbuch.de/product_info.php?info=p5937_Das-Flurschaden-Geschwader---Kampfgeschwader-51--Edelwei--.html

[FalkeEins]

and contains nothing on Puttfarken or his loss that can't be read in this thread - in fact the author could usefully have used this thread in his account!

[Maximowitz]

Originally Posted by FalkeEins

and contains nothing on Puttfarken or his loss that can't be read in this thread - in fact the author could usefully have used this thread in his account!

..... and probably did. Very disappointing.

[FalkeEins]

to be fair to the author, Me 410 ops only comprise about 70 pages of his 370 page KG 51 chronicle..

[Crimea River]

Hello everyone. I've been corresponding with Paul (Maximowitz) on an Me 410 modeling project and have become intrigued by this thread and the possibility, no probability, of depicting Dietrich Puttfarken's 410 of 5/KG 51 as it may have appeared on the night of his loss on April 22/23, 1944. As it appears by the foregoing discussions, no matter what the ultimate scheme is that I will present, it will at best be the summation of the various expert opinions expressed here and elsewhere, some of which is contratidictory as there is obviously scant evidence on how this plane appeared. So, on that note, here are the minimum features that I have decided to go with based on best available info, unless someone can prove these to be false:

- Overall camo will be standard 74/75/76 oversprayed with black on the undersides and up the sides
- Variant will be Me 410 A-1/U2 with twin MG 151's in the weapons bay
- Flame arrestors over exhausts
- FuG 101 radar altimeter antennae under starboard wing, no other radar.
- aircraft code 9K+MN with small 9K, large M in red, outlined in white, and large N in black
- W. Nr. 420314 will be overpainted in black (solves one decal problem!)
- drop tanks on each wing
- No Edelweiss crest

Apart from that, the only other thing I need to settle on is the spinner colours and pattern. It's been suggested that these would be all red as carried on other earlier 5/KG51 Ju-88's. I'm thinking perhaps RLM 70 with red caps.

Any thoughts on my choices above would be appreciated.

[Nick Beale]

More likely is that the only large letter in the code would be the one for the individual aircraft. There is evidence that the staffel letter was small: photo of the wreck of 9K+CP on page 320 of Kampfflieger Vol. 4 (Classic Publications).

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

You are correct Nick. There is other photographic evidence to this.

Regards,

Norbert

[Crimea River]

Good to know gentlemen, thanks. I know this was mentioned in an earlier post and I neglected to consider it. Thanks for the reminder.

So small black N behind the M, same size as the 9K?

Any thought/guesses on the spinners?

[Norbert Schuchbauer]

Indeed same size as the 9K. No thoughts on the spinners.

Norbert

[Crimea River]

Thanks Norbert